Volume 45 No. 20
October 19, 2015
Desire Precedes Duty In the Grace of Giving!
Several years ago in the unlikely town of Fulton, Missouri, city officials requested that
huge chunks of concrete be hauled onto the local college campus. In preparation for a
major event, they wanted to build an appropriate backdrop. A historic speech was to be
delivered in their little city, and the concrete slabs would be perfect for the occasion.
They were not much to look at; in fact, they were severely scarred and covered with
graffiti. But in that setting, on that day, they could not have been more beautiful.
The speech was to be given by Mikail Gorbachev, ex-premier of the once powerful
Soviet Union. His address would be delivered in the same place as on given nearly half
a century earlier by Sir Winston Churchill. Speaking from the same podium, Churchill
had coined the phrase “Iron Curtain” to describe the enslavement of Eastern Europe.
Decades later, an ex-Soviet leader would stand on the same campus and speak
about….freedom. Displayed prominently behind him would be those unsightly concrete
pillars from the recent-fallen Berlin Wall - actual remnants of the once-daunting “Iron
Curtain.”
“Freely you have received, freely give,” said Jesus to His disciples when He sent them
out to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. He wanted them to be motivated by the fact
that they had been given something very valuable, yet, paradoxically, were able to give
it away and still keep it. They had been freely given the redemptive truth of Christ and,
with His empowerment, they were mobilized to go forth and give it away to others.
And their lives would be changed by the same transformational truth.
Have you given the Gospel away to anyone recently? The more you give away the
more you will have.
God Bless,
Paul